New website expansion in West Country

THE Western Daily Press will have several new sister-websites after its parent company Reach PLC announced plans to expand operations in Dorset, Herefordshire and Wiltshire and the creation of dozens of new jobs.

A new Dorset Live brand will have its own team of reporters and content editors covering the whole county, from Lyme Regis to Bournemouth, with plans including coverage of Bournemouth FC.

The expansion is part of a wider announcement from Reach which will deliver a local news brand in every county in England and Wales by the end of the year.

In the South West, Reach is also launching Live brands for Wiltshire and Herefordshire and bringing new reporters in to provide a dedicated service for Weston-super-Mare and north Devon. Across the country the move will create more than 50 jobs – marking more than 170 new jobs created for Reach’s regional Live sites since the start of 2020.

Reach’s South West Audience and Content Director Jacqui Merrington said: “BristolLive, GloucestershireLive and SomersetLive are now wellestablished brands in their markets because we respond to what our audience wants to read and we’ve built a relationship with our readers. We will do the same in Dorset, Wiltshire and Herefordshire and we’re really looking forward to getting to know our readers and developing a top-class news, sport and entertainment service in the county.”

The decision follows a period of rapid growth for Reach’s online regional brands. Comscore data released in March shows that 72% of UK adults get local news from Reach, up from 67% a year ago, with 88% of adults who consume local news in the UK spending time on Reach’s Live network of sites. Reach also has a track record for launching sites from the ground up in new areas. In 2020 alone the company launched 19 new regional sites, including YorkshireLive which launched in March and within only six months had the largest news audience in the county.

Lloyd Embley, Reach Editor-inChief, saif: “Over the past 18 months, we’ve significantly ramped up the number of new sites we’ve launched as part of our Live network, many in areas where we don’t have established print titles.

“The reaction to 2020’s launches from new readers has been overwhelmingly positive, giving us the confidence to complete the whole map of England and Wales by the end of this year. This further strengthens our position as the leading news publisher in the UK with an unparalleled ability to engage audiences through both our national and regional journalism.”